Marlon and Jake explore the power of setting in novels—and why the best stories feel like they couldn’t have happened anywhere else. They discuss settings that become characters in their own right, fictional worlds they’d love (or absolutely hate) to inhabit, and books that made unexpected places fascinating. Plus: why a modern-day Captain Nemo might just be a tech bro.

• Amerika by Franz Kafka
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
• Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
• Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
• Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
• The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
• My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
• A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• The Last Man by Mary Shelley
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Marlon and Jake explore the books that have helped define who they are, choosing four that capture different parts of their personalities and lives. They unpack how reading can shape our understanding of identity, community, and growing up—and change the way we see ourselves and each other. Tune in as they reflect on books they encountered at exactly the right (or wrong) time and the stories that made the world around them feel a little bigger.

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• Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
• Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer
• The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Red and the Black by Stendhal
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• The Aspern Papers by Henry James
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
• Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
• Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
• X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
• Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
• The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley

Marlon and Jake dive into one of literature's trickiest subjects: sex. Why do some writers capture intimacy with honesty while others veer into the unintentionally hilarious? Along the way, they discuss why writing about sex is really writing about people, the differences between American and French attitudes toward sexuality in fiction, ghost stories as a vehicle for taboo desires, and the delicate balance between telling the truth and keeping readers engaged. Tune in for a conversation about why the best writing on sex is rarely just about sex.

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• Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth 
• “The Diamond Mine” by Nadine Gordimer
• The Late Bourgeois World by Nadine Gordimer
• Death of Venice by Thomas Mann
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
• Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet
• Maurice by E. M. Forster
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• Ernesto by Umberto Saba
• Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
• London Fields by Martin Amis
• The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
• Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown
• G. by John Berger 
• Flashman series
• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
• The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
• The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• Jaws by Peter Benchley

Marlon and Jake tackle the writers they have no interest in revisiting, asking when it's worth giving a beloved (or notorious) author another chance and when it's perfectly fine to walk away for good. Tune in as they debate literary canon, books that simply aren't for them, the difference between a difficult author and a difficult book, and why sometimes the most honest review is, "Nobody needs to go back to that"

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• The Executioner series by Don Pendleton
• Hotel by Arthur Hailey
• Airport by Arthur Hailey
• Wheels by Arthur Hailey
• The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey
• Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
• Shōgun by James Clavell
• Tai-Pan by James Clavell
• King Rat by James Clavell
• Whirlwind by James Clavell
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
• The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
• Light in August by William Faulkner
• Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• Pylon by William Faulkner
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote
• Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
• “Where Is the Voice Coming from?” by Eudora Welty
• The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
• The Return of a Native by Thomas Hardy
• The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
• The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing
• Children of Violence series by Doris Lessing
• Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
• Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman
• An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman
• The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara
• Butterfield 8 by John O’Hara
• A Rage to Live by John O’Hara
• Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
• Grendel by John Gardner
• October Light by John Gardner
• The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
• On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
• The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Giant by Edna Ferber
• Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
• A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman
• Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
• Burr by Gore Vidal
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches
• Delina Delaney by Amanda McKittrick Ros
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Stuart Little by E. B. White
• The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
• Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
• Jaws by Peter Benchley

Marlon and Jake explore why we're so eager to revisit the worlds of our favorite stories, asking whether great characters are better left where their authors left them—or if there's value in imagining what came before or after. Tune in as they unpack the appeal of sequels, the pitfalls of origin stories, and why some fictional worlds are more powerful when they remain a mystery.

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• A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon
• Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
• Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
• The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Lost Horizon by James Hilton
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Marlon and Jake dive into the world of dystopian fiction, unpacking what truly makes a dystopia—and whether some of the genre’s biggest ideas hold up under closer scrutiny. Along the way, they discuss why some dystopias feel more believable than others, how our understanding of these stories changes over time, and the real-world parallels that make them resonate long after the final page. Tune in as they explore how history, power, and human nature shape the worlds we imagine.

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• Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
• The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
• The Last Man by Mary Shelley
• 1984 by George Orwell 
• Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
• Pilgermann by Russell Hoban
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Pincher Martin by William Golding
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Welcome back for a new season! Marlon and Jake catch up on what they’ve been reading, writing, and working on, including Marlon’s new novel, and explore the books they return to when it’s time to create. They discuss the stories that inspire rather than intimidate, the surprising value of giving up on a book, and the writers they revisit to clear the cobwebs from their minds. Tune in to hear how reading shapes their creative process, from finding the right voice to discovering what makes great dialogue.

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• “A Trifle from Life” by Anton Chekhov
• Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
• “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
• The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
• War Music by Christopher Logue
• The Odyssey by Homer
• The Oresteia by Aeschylus
• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
• Maurice by E. M. Forster
• Ernesto by Umberto Saba
• Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
• New Hampshire by Robert Frost
• In Parenthesis by David Jones
• Civil War by Lucan

In the final episode of the season, Marlon and Jake weigh in on their favorite vacation reads, including the ones they started but never finished. Tune in to find out which classic novels Jake took to the beach and which ones Marlon says should have been thrown in the ocean. 

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• The Goodbye Look by Ross McDonald
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Chances by Jackie Collins
• The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• The Golden Bowl by Henry James
• The Ambassadors by Henry James
• Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
• Pronto by Elmore Leonard
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
• The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot by Robert Arthur, Jr.
• Persuasion by Jane Austen

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times—it was school. In this episode, Marlon and Jake discuss books where school is the setting or going to school is central to the plot. They debate which authors got school right and which got school wrong, what makes an inspiring teacher, and what the closed universe of a schoolyard or college campus can feel like. Tune in to hear Marlon and Jake reminisce over their own college experiences and what they were like as students.

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• Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
• The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
• Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
• Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
• The Crime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Look back in Anger by John Osborne
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
• Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
• Absalom, Absalom! By William Faulkner
• Love Story by Erich Segal
• The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
• Stoner by John Williams
• Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
• The Corn is Green by Emlyn Williams

In this episode, Marlon and Jake talk about cities in books. Books set in memorable cities, books set in cities you're glad you've never been to and books where the city itself is nearly a character. They talk about the specificity of London of the 19th century British novel, the New York novel, entirely fictional cities in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and don’t miss Marlon’s personal experience with Bloomsday in Dublin!

Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content. https://sites.prh.com/riverhead-reader-newsletterUlysses by James Joyce 

• Ulysses by James Joyce
• Portrait of the Artist by James Joyce
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe 
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
• The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
• Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
• Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino 
• Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin
• In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust 
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
• Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice 
• Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L’Engle

In this episode, Marlon and Jake talk about the bad characters we’re not meant to like but do and the good characters we’re meant to like but annoy us. From Dracula to Daisy Buchanan to Oliver Twist and Bambi, the good-to-evil spectrum is vast and no character is safe from commentary. Tune in to find out which classic villain the duo unanimously hate, and which villain gives Marlon the chills and scares Jake to this day. 

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• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser
• Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
• King Solomon’s Mines by Sir H. Rider Haggard
• Raiders of the Lost Arc by Campbell Black
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys
• Bambi by Felix Salten
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Railway Children by E. Nesbit
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen